just curious if anyone out there keeps any native species in their tanks? i have thought about keeping some of the various north american sunfish but haven't as of yet.

I've kept Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds, Largemouth Bass, Brown Bullhead Catfish, Grass Pickerel, Yellow Perch and a few Swamp Darters. Very temporary however, I've yet to have an established native aqaurium. They get so big!

=)

I used to have a 6in black bullhead and a Painted turtle 4 1/2 in across in a 30 gal long. It was a pain in the but to keep clean but they were cool to watch.

at any given time you want to know about natives of North America I would be more than welcome to helping you.

Do you have any specific questions about natives?

Are there any specific ones you are more interestd in?

As far as the sunfish go it will depend on the size tank you want to work with, some of the pygmy sunfish can be kept in as little as 10 gallon tanks, but some of the larger ones will require 75+ to keep.

In my opinion darters and chubs are the better natives to keep, you get the best of both worlds with them, sorta like african chiclids. The bright colors without the salt water.

PM me or post back here I can help if you need.

thanks for the offer, i don't really have any specific questions as of right now. just trying to stir up some interest in the natives forum.:)

as per your request cich1 I will try to make up some sorta of rules of the road or rules of thumb for native fish. Well natives to North America.
For now I would like to recomend a organizations site, the organization is called NANFA (North American Native Fish Association) you can find them at www.nanfa.org they dont have a forum like this one but they have a mailing list if you wish to join it.

For the mean while please just post questions and I will try to help answer them.
Stay tuned for some basics for north american native fish.

Right now I think I have 4 natives. Only one of them was a wild caught. That would be my Warmouth. I have him in a 55 with a 6 inch crayfish. I have two very small bass that came in with the feeder goldfish at work and a very small catfish that came in with the ghost shrimp. Those guys are in a 20H for now with about 6 or 7 Convict Fry.

The Warmouth is a very cool fish I must say. Behaviors very much like a New World Cichlid. Doesn't really like other fish to hang out with although I would kind of like to get a school of something in there that he could chace around and/or eat. Chubs might be fun... I will have to work on that when it gets warm again.

So that's what it is!! My lfs has been stocking these sunnie looking things and recently they had a fish looking like that. I thought it was a warmouth...but they aren't found in New Jersey...:|

He is a pretty sweet fish. Back this fall he was feaking out one night trying to get a spider on my floor. (tanks at ground level)

Is it legel to sell natives?

i don't think it's legal here in california. you would have to check your local laws though.

The lfs near me sells sunfishes and swamp darters some aren't even native to Jersey waters. So I doubt there are laws about selling/keeping natives in most of the US...*NJ is a very very strict state*

You can usually fin the laws in the state's fishing rules and regs book that comes out every year. In MN it is legal for kids to keep gamefish in a home tank.

i kept 2 rockbass babies at one point
fed them leftover meat from our food and feeder goldfish
since i didnt use any comercial medicines or anything we ate them when they got descent size
they were quite good altho i miis john and lenon lol
:punch:

i believe in california it is illegal to keep any native fish in home aquaria unless you get a permit from fish and game. i would venture to guess that the same would go for selling live native fish as well. while i don't doubt that NJ is a stict state shadow, i think california would be just as bad if not worse. if you have thought about or even wanted to think about doing something that may be construed as fun chances are california has either thought of a way to capitalize on it or made it illegal.

Get me the state and I can tell you the rules.

Does the bass pond out back count? I fly fish it, ht a Large Mouth two Hydrid Bluegill and some turtle yesterday.

That war mouth looks like a pumpkinseed on steroids.

You should have seen the one that I tryed to keep with it for a while! Way prettier. Some guy was trying to keep a gill, crappy, and a rock bass in a thirty gallon. Needless to say the rock bass was kicking some butt so he gave it to me. My war mouth who was about 2" shorter and about half the built in size spanked him. So I got a hold of a guy who is keeping a cat and two large mouth in a 220. I guess being that they picked on it it died, saddly. It was a cool fish. I should have gave him my warmouth and kept the rock bass to get it back to health. Live and learn.

My warmouth will take food from my hand. Just to show how personal he is. Very much like a new world cichlid.